"Manchester City are a team with a lot of world-class players but I think David Silva is their key player," Poulsen told Goal.com.

When reminded that Silva is a severe doubt for the game thanks to an injury picked up on international duty, the midfielder replied: "He is? Well, that's a small relief but, on the other hand, they have a lot of players who can replace him.

"With guys like Aguero and Toure they will always bring world-class players onto the pitch.

"Toure is a very strong midfielder. His physique is outstanding and that's going to put us in a difficult position. I think I've played against him when I was at Sevilla and he played for Barcelona but he has become even better since joining City.

"It's going to be a tough couple of weeks for us and it starts against City on Wednesday", Poulsen continued.

"Against Real Madrid we didn't play well. We had a lot of problems with the amount of pressure they put on our defence so we couldn't play our own game. Against Borussia Dortmund it was a lot better so we have to focus on that.

"If we manage to play our own way, we can hurt a team like Manchester City."

He may be his club's most experienced player but Poulsen, like Ajax as a whole, has never faced City before.

"No, I don't think so," he confirmed, "but I don't worry about which teams I’ve played against. I focus on my next opponent and afterwards I let it go.

"But I do know that their current team is world class, just like the other teams in our group. I hope we can do better against City then we did against the other teams, because we really need three points."